


The Boy by the Gate

by JessicaMDawn



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Growing Up, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-02
Updated: 2008-05-02
Packaged: 2017-11-21 16:23:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/599767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessicaMDawn/pseuds/JessicaMDawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No matter how harsh life was, Seto Kaiba always had the little boy by the gate to keep him smiling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Seto Kaiba remembered being an orphan with his brother Mokuba. He remembered playing games and having friends. And smiling. Seto Kaiba remembered smiling.

Then he made that deal with Gozuboro Kaiba. He and Mokuba were adopted and taken to the largest house Seto had ever seen. He was so amazed that the painful truth of the man who'd adopted them was that much harder to bare. He'd never been so tired, sad, beaten, desolate, or lonely ever before in his life.

Mokuba tried to make him feel better, but Seto could feel himself slipping into nothingness and despair. He'd taken to sitting in his study room and staring out at the sky during his break times, when he wasn't sleeping. One day, a little boy and an even littler girl walked past the front gate and they stopped to marvel at the immensity of the house.

Seto remembered sneering down at them from his window. How stupid those two were. There was nothing special about this house. The little boy grabbed a hold of the black metal bars that made up the gate and frowned. Then the boy looked up, directly at Seto's window, with eyes shining golden in the sun...

and smiled.

It was something Seto hadn't done in awhile. Seeing this boy, no older than he himself, smile so freely made Seto remember the days before they were adopted, and he felt a smile creeping onto his face. But then the door opened and Gozuboro walked in, demanding that Seto get back to work, and the smile faded before it was born. He was torn from his window seat and forced into an uncomfortable chair, surrounded by textbooks.

Every day after that, that same little blonde boy would stand outside the mansion, with or without the girl. He played silly games by himself, like hopscotch, making chalk drawings, peek-a-boo at random passers-by. He would sing little tunes that Seto could barely hear and barely recognized as cartoon openings or commercial jingles. Sometimes he would lay on the cement and point to random clouds and Seto was forced to try and guess what the boy thought the cloud looked like. He was slowly losing his ability to imagine shapes in the clouds, and he had no one to tell him if he was right or not when he guessed.

The guards became used to the little boy, thinking he just lived around here and chose the mansion front to play his games. But he was Seto's best friend. He was Seto's salvation. He was Seto's light in the darkness. He was the final piece Seto needed to stay sane, besides Mokuba.

One day, Seto snuck out of the mansion and to the gate. The little boy showed up, and frowned when he didn't see Seto in the window like normal. But he smiled when Seto announced his presence with a small 'hey' from behind a bush.

"Here, I got this for you," the little blonde boy announced at once, a smile so wide on his face that Seto almost smiled himself. "I thought I'd never see you so close!"

He handed a wad of brown paper to the little Kaiba. For a moment, Seto thought that was the gift, but it was too heavy to be so. Upon unwrapping the wad, he found a two inch statue of a white dragon. It was beautifully crafted and looked like diamonds in the sun. Seto turned it over and saw a price sticker on the bottom.

$9.99

Seto couldn't help himself. He started laughing. It was crisp and clear and he realized then how much he'd missed laughing. The little boy was not similarly amused.

"Wh-why are you laughing?!" he yelled angrily. Seto calmed himself down and wiped his eyes where tears were forming.

"S-sorry. I just...It was so pretty I thought it would be expensive...," he said with a large smile. The little boy smiled too and cheered.

"Yay! I got a smile!" Seto tilted his head in confusion, his eyes wide in curiosity. The little boy laughed. "I've been trying to make you smile since I saw you. You frown too much! My mommy says smiling is the cure to everything!"

"Oh," little Seto said, blinking slowly. He smiled softly. "Smiling is the cure to everything."

"Big brother!" Mokuba cried out, running up to the two boys. "He's looking for you, big brother! He looked mad!"

Mokuba tripped just before he got to Seto and the boy. Seto frowned at the news. He looked back at the little boy and smiled. He helped Mokuba up and handed him the precious cargo of his dragon gift.

"Don't worry, smiling is the cure for everything." He was at once shocked by how childish he sounded, saying this to his little brother. "Can you take this to my room, please?"

Mokuba nodded determinedly and marched back to the mansion like a little soldier on a mission. It was cute. Seto turned around and smiled at the little boy again.

"Sorry, I gotta go. I'll see you later, ok? Up there," he pointed to his study room and the little blonde boy nodded, a naive and happy smile playing across his lips. He looked like a puppy.

"Bye bye then!" the little boy waved his hands wildly, even though Seto was still right next to him, just on the other side of the gate. Then the blonde boy took off down the road and Seto walked back to the mansion with a small smile on his face.

But he never saw that boy again. A few days after that, when he was beginning to worry that he'd been abandoned again, he heard news from the guards that the little boy who always played in front of the gate had come by in the middle of the night, distraught, crying loudly, and shaking the bars of the gate until they had to call the cops on him and he was taken away. A few days later he realized that the little blonde boy who had been his only friend...wasn't coming back.

And that was the last time Seto Kaiba remembered crying.


	2. The Boy by the Gate II

Seto Kaiba remembered hating. He remembered everyone in his life trying to take him down or take over his life. He remembered people sucking up to him and people fearing him. He remembered getting everything he wanted.

He remembered school. He knew he knew all of it already because of Gozoburo's training, but he went anyway. Why? Because Kaiba remembered remembering. He could recall a blonde boy who became the light of his life and that they were relatively the same age. So, besides the fact that the law ordered him to do so, Kaiba went to school in hopes of finding The Boy by the Gate.

Kaiba knows he never found him. He knows he began to hate the boy. He knows how he feels and he remembers how it felt and he hates everything!

And the boy with the game shop; Yugi Moto. Kaiba definitely knows Yugi Moto. He and his friend Tea Gardener always tried to became close buddies with Kaiba. But a Kaiba didn't need such things as friends. A Kaiba needed nothing except his company. Then there were Tristan Taylor and Joey Wheeler, always picking at him. They were the most annoying people Kaiba had ever met. He hated them all most of all, or was it least of all? He couldn't remember.

And Kaiba forgot why he started coming to school in the first place.

Yet Kaiba remembers fighting. He can give detailed reports of what happened in every tournament, with every mystical 'bad guy' that he'd ever seen. He could tell you when he was frightened, when he was shocked. He could explain the torture, the excitement, and the reasons he never stopped. Oh yes, Kaiba could tell you. But he won't.

Kaiba found himself, after the magic and the sorcery was gone, alone. He found himself unhappy with the world. After all was said and done, nothing seemed important and he kept his company because it was his and he needed it. But he was losing himself.

Mokuba tried to make him feel better, but Seto could feel himself slipping into nothingness and despair. He'd taken to sitting in his study room and staring out at the sky during his break times, when he wasn't working. He would recall better times and wonder if he would find anything enjoyable again.

Kaiba remembers nostalgia. Of course, he doesn't believe that looking back on the past can change anything, but he does it anyway. Because, for all intents and purposes, he's the ruler of the entire world and he can do whatever he wants.

And just when he couldn't take it...Just when Kaiba couldn't understand why he did what he did any longer...

Why was he working? Why was he building? Why was he improving the world? Why did he create games? Why did he duel? Why did he cook? Why did he graduate high school? Why was he running a company? Why was Mokuba still with him, by his side, defending him?

Why was the world so still?!

Just when Kaiba was about to lose his mind, he looked down from the sky to the front gate of the mansion. A young man with blonde hair, and a young woman with brown hair, were walking past the front gate. The girl pointed to the gate and giggled and Kaiba narrowed his eyes.

He'd seen her before...But what right did she have to be happy? Kaiba wasn't happy, so the world shouldn't be happy.

The teen boy agreed with whatever she said, and then the girl kept walking, but the boy stayed still. Kaiba knew this boy.

"Who are you?" he asked aloud, and it was like magic came back into the world.

Joey Wheeler lifted his head and looked right into the window Kaiba sat behind. At first he looked shocked, then mildly surprised, and then it all died down and...

He smiled.

Kaiba remembers feeling. He stood from his spot and rushed down the stairs in a very un-Kaiba way. He ran out a side door and then walked calmly to the gate where Joey Wheeler was waiting.

"Hey, Kaiba," he greeted calmly. Kaiba nodded to him. Joey frowned. "You could at least say 'hi', ya know?"

"What about your sister?" Kaiba asked, nodding his head in the direction the girl had gone. He had remembered who she was the moment Joey lifted his head. Joey shrugged.

"I told her I'd meet her at Burger World in a bit," he explained. "Why, you need somethin'?"

Kaiba nodded, but said nothing. He could ask if Joey was the boy by the gate from years ago. But he already knew the answer - yes. He could ask why Joey left so suddenly. But after so many adventures and the blabbering mouths of his friends, Kaiba already knew that too - his sister had been taken away and they had moved into an apartment on the outskirts of the city. He could ask why Joey didn't say something about it sooner. But Kaiba knew he was too unapproachable for that. He could ask a lot of things but...

He pulled on the collar of Joey's shirt, white with blue sleeves, and Joey's head came between the bars of the main gate. Thinking back, Kaiba could've crawled right between those bars, or Joey could've, when they were younger. But that was besides the point. Joey was now within distance. Kaiba put his arms through the bars and hugged the blonde.

It was short and sweet and everything all at once. He felt silly, but so relieved and light and saved. And then it was over and Seto let go of the boy. It was like they were back at the beginning again. They stared at each other for awhile, not saying anything. Then Seto smiled.

"It didn't cost a thing," he said. He felt like a child again. "To smile at you."

Joey grinned in the way that Joey always did. "Do you feel better now?" Seto gave him a remotely confused look. "I've been trying to make you smile since we met again! You're always so frowny! Now that you're smiling, do you feel better?"

Seto thought about it for a moment before he nodded with the slightest smile. "Yes."

"That's because-"

"-smiles are the cure for everything," Seto finished for him in near monotone. Joey looked perturbed at being interrupted, but before he could yell, Seto beat him to it. "Your sister's waiting for you. I'll see you later, alright?"

Joey smiled brightly. "Right here!" he claimed. "I'll be here later. Right here! I promise this time, nothing will stop me."

Seto smirked at how childish this all sounded. But he supposed it was his years of being 'Kaiba' that made that happen. He inclined his head a bit and Joey took off running down the street in the direction of Burger World.

And that was when Seto Kaiba remembered loving; loving everything.

Now years later he would look back and snort at how it happened, or about how long it took, or groan at the stupidity he showed all the time, but all in all Seto could not say he disliked having Joey Wheeler around. Sure, they didn't always get along, but they didn't always fight. And the world wasn't always perfect and sometimes Joey cried, and sometimes they would yell, and sometimes they would not speak at all.

But being friends with Joey was one of the best feelings in the world, and it felt like magic everyday and that just made life that much more worth living. Sometimes he could even stand Yugi and the others - and that was quite the improvement.

_Fin_


End file.
